1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk drive, in particular to a tray ejection apparatus of a disk drive which is capable of ejecting a tray by using the driving force of a sled motor for transferring a pickup.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a disk drive performs data reproducing/recording of a disk by using a pickup. It widely comprises a casing which is a mainframe of a drive, and a tray installed at the casing so as to be movable back and forth which performs the loading/unloading of the disk.
The general disk drive comprises a tray ejection apparatus which fixes the position of the tray, while data reproducing/recording is performed, after it is inserted inside of a casing, and ejects the tray from the casing when the fixed position, of the tray is released after the disk reproducing/recording is finished.
The conventional tray ejection apparatus of the disk drive will now be described with reference to FIG. 1.
First, a solenoid 1 as the driving source and a driving plate 3 driven by the solenoid 1 are installed at the bottom surface of a tray Txe2x80x2 where a disk is mounted.
Herein, the driving plate 3 is elastically supported by a spring 4 and the side of the spring is connected to an actuator 2 of the solenoid 1.
In addition, the spring 4 is connected between the tray Txe2x80x2 and the driving plate 3 and provides elasticity to the driving plate 3.
Rotating slots 3A, 3B for rotating a connecting lever 6 and a bridging lever 10 are installed at the driving plate 3. Herein, the connecting lever 6 is installed at the bottom surface of the tray Txe2x80x2 so as to be rotational, centering around a hinge shaft 6H, and is driven by the driving plate 3.
The connecting lever 6 includes a rotating protrusion 8 inserted into the rotating slot 3A of the driving plate 3 sliding along the rotating slot 3A, and a driving pin 9 for driving the bridging lever 10 formed at the end of the rotating protrusion 8.
The bridging lever 10 is installed at the bottom surface of the tray Txe2x80x2 so as to be rotational, centering around a hinge shaft 10H, and is driven by the connecting lever 6.
An interlocking rib 11 for interlocking with the driving pin 9 of the connecting lever 6 is formed at the end of the bridging lever 10, and the hinge shaft 10H is inserted into the rotating slot 3B of the driving plate 3.
In addition, the bridging lever 10 and connecting lever 6 are elastically supported by the spring 7, 12 separately so as to be rotational, centering around the hinge shafts 6H and 10H, respectively.
A returning lever 13 for returning the connecting lever 6 and the bridging lever 10 driven by the solenoid 1 to their initial position is installed at the bottom surface of the tray Txe2x80x2 adjacent to the bridging lever 10 so as to be rotational around the hinge shaft 13H. In addition, the returning lever 13 is elastically supported by a spring 9 (not shown) so as to be rotational around the hinge shaft 13H in a counter-clockwise direction.
A stopper 15 is formed at the front side of the casing Cxe2x80x2 for hanging and fixing the bridging lever 10 in order to prevent the tray Txe2x80x2 from ejecting to the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2 when the tray Txe2x80x2 is inserted into the casing Cxe2x80x2 and when reproducing/recording data on a disk is performed.
In addition, the tray Txe2x80x2 is elastically supported by an ejector spring 17 biased toward the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2; namely, in the tray ejection direction.
The non-described reference numeral 19 is a supporting protrusion formed the bottom surface of the tray Txe2x80x2 for supporting the end of the springs 7, 12 which support the connection lever 6 and the bridging lever 10.
The operation of the conventional tray eject apparatus of the disk drive will now be described.
First, when an eject button is pushed by a user, a signal for operating the solenoid 1 is generated. The solenoid 1 is driven by the signal and the actuator 2 is projected to the rear side.
Likewise, when the actuator 2 of the solenoid 1 operates, the driving plate 3 connected to the actuator 2 is horizontally transferred to the rear side. After that, the rotating protrusion 8 of the bridging lever 6 inserted into the rotating slot 3A of the driving plate 3 slides along the rotating slot 3A by the movement of the driving plate 3, and the connecting lever 6 rotates around the hinge shaft 6H in the counter-clockwise direction.
As described above, when the connecting lever 6 rotates, the driving pin 9 of the connecting lever 6 pushes the interlocking rib 11 of the bridging lever 10, and the bridging lever 10 rotates around the hinge shaft 10H in counter-clockwise direction.
After that, when the bridging lever 10 escapes from the stopper 15, after rotating a certain amount in the counter-clockwise direction, the force restricting the tray Txe2x80x2 is removed and, accordingly, the tray Txe2x80x2 ejects to the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2 to a certain degree by the ejector spring 17.
As described above, when the tray Txe2x80x2 projects to the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2 to a certain degree, the user can pull the tray Txe2x80x2 by hand until it is completely removed to the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2 where a disk can be unloaded from a tray or mounted in a tray Txe2x80x2.
Herein, when the tray Txe2x80x2 completely projects to the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2, the return lever 13 operates to make the solenoid 1 return to its initial position.
The return process of the solenoid 1 by the return lever 13 will now be described in detail.
When the tray Txe2x80x2 is transferred toward the outside of the casing Cxe2x80x2, the left end portion of the return lever 13 hangs on the stopper 15, and the return lever 13 rotates around the hinge shaft 13H in a clock-wise direction.
As described above, when the return lever 13 rotates, the right end of the return lever 13 pushes the driving plate 3 to the front side, and the actuator 2 of the solenoid 1 moves into the solenoid 1 by the movement of the driving plate 3.
On the contrary, when the user pushes the tray Txe2x80x2 into the casing Cxe2x80x2, the bridging lever 10 engages the stopper 15 and, accordingly, the position of the tray Txe2x80x2 is fixed.
In more detail, the user loads a disk on the tray Txe2x80x2 or unloads a disk mounted on the tray Txe2x80x2, and pushes the tray Txe2x80x2 into the casing Cxe2x80x2.
When the tray Txe2x80x2 is pushed into the casing Cxe2x80x2, the bridging lever 10 overcomes the elasticity of the spring 12 by being pushed by the stopper 15 and rotates a small amount in the counter-clockwise direction. The side of the bridging lever 10 in its rotated state is transferred in accordance with the stopper 15.
The tray Txe2x80x2 is then pushed continually, so that when the end portion of the bridging lever 10 passes the stopper 15, the bridging lever 10 rotates around the hinge shaft 10H by the elasticity of the spring 12, and the end portion of the bridging lever 10 engages the inside of the stopper 15. Accordingly, the tray Txe2x80x2 is received inside of the casing Cxe2x80x2.
As described above, the solenoid 1, the driving plate 3, the bridging lever 10, the connecting lever 6 and the return lever 13 all represent the conventional tray ejection apparatus of the disk drive and are all installed at the bottom surface of the tray Txe2x80x2, which is a moving unit. Accordingly, the construction complexity of the moving unit, and the electricity consumption required for transferring the moving unit increase due to the increase in load. Also, the assembly of the tray Txe2x80x2 is very complicated because most of the parts are installed at the bottom surface of the tray Txe2x80x2.
In addition, the conventional tray ejection apparatus of a disk drive requires a solenoid 1 as an additional operation unit, and flexible cable for transmitting operational signals to the solenoid 1 installed between the casing Cxe2x80x2 and tray Txe2x80x2 in order to connect them together. This causes an increase in the cost of parts and, accordingly, the manufacturing costs of the disk drive increases.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tray ejection apparatus of a disk drive which is capable of ejecting the tray by using the driving force of a sled motor for transferring a pickup, thereby minimizing the construction parts required for the tray ejection apparatus.
The tray ejection apparatus of the disk drive of the present invention comprises a tray installed at the inside of a casing so as to be transferred back and forth for inserting into and extending from the casing. A driving unit is installed at the tray which provides the driving force for transferring a pickup. A transferring member is provided which transfers the pickup by rotating, using the force transmitted from the driving unit. A stopper member is protrusively formed at the front of the casing; a bridging member fixes and releases the tray through the bridging operation with the stopper member, and a releasing member is installed at the side of the transferring member so as to be interlocked with the transferring member which operates the bridging member in order to make the fixed tray position selectively releasable.